Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
